Once upon a time in Turkey

A visual chronicle of Armenians in Turkey 100 years ago

Osman Köker’s personal journey from Marash to Istanbul to Yerevan

by Maria Titizian

Published: Friday October 02, 2009

What story can a collection of a few hundred postcards from a century ago tell? What secrets can be revealed in the faded images of villages, towns, schools, factories, and churches? Individually, they may appear interesting and novel. As a collection they tell the story of the social and economic history of a people who no longer live on their ancestral homeland. They tell the story of the Armenian people.

The exhibition of postcards that were on display in Yerevan's Moscow Cinema from September 22 to 26 were part of a collection of postcards included in Osman Köker's book, Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago. Organized by the Civilitas Foundation and sponsored by HayPost, the exhibition created a lot of interest and prompted much discussion in the Armenian capital.

While he was in Yerevan, ­Osman Köker spoke with the Armenian Reporter about his life, his work, and his mission to publish his book.

The story begins in Marash

Köker was born in the historic Armenian city of Marash, and says that his experiences as a child in his native city helped formulate his understanding of his own country.

Growing up, the only time he would ever hear about the Armenians would be on every February 12, Marash's Liberation Day. "There would be commemorations about the conflict. It was the day that Marash had been liberated from the Armenians who had usurped their land," explains Köker. They only ever spoke about the Armenians except to refer to them as a source of conflict. Later on in life, when he had become a specialist in minorities, he understood that there was a skewed understanding of their own history.

"There was a very important Armenian presence in Marash; they were one third of the population during the Ottoman era," he says. "They had mastered various trades. However, during my childhood there was not a single Armenian left in Marash. There had been ten Armenian churches, two cathedrals and more than ten schools in Marash. Today there is no trace of those buildings. I never saw one building ever made by an Armenian."

An experience from his childhood, one that he understands was unique and helped shape his historical viewpoint, is something he recalls vividly. "I was 9 years old and in those years, people involved in NATO programs would come to Marash and they would teach English," he says. "An American woman who had come to Izmir with the NATO program, was originally from Marash. She told someone that she wanted to go to Marash to visit her family's home. They gave her my father's name and said that he could probably help her." The American woman from Osman's past was Armenian.

"She came to our house as a guest. It was amazing to us because she was speaking Turkish with the Marash dialect," he recalls. "In our family, we didn't even speak the real Marash dialect because my mother was from Istanbul. She was more of a Marashtsi than we were!" Decades later, Osman Köker says that experience helped him to understand that the Armenians were as much citizens of Turkey as the Turks were.

"The history being taught in Turkish schools to Turkish students is from their own particular historical viewpoint. When they generally speak about the Armenians, they say that at one time the Armenians came, created problems and then left," he explains. "If you tell a Turk that you are an Armenian from Van or Civas or Marash, he will ask you, ‘How did you come to be there?'"

This is how history is taught in Turkey even today. "They don't say that Armenians lived there, that they played a very important role in the development of trade and culture, that they were a part of that land," says Köker. "The experience I had as a nine-year old helped me to understand that reality more clearly."

The Armenian-American woman eventually did find her house in Marash.

History beckons

After graduating from the lycee in Marash, Osman Köker moved to Ankara to pursue his university education. "Even though I am not a historian, my career in journalism and publishing always had a historical direction," he explains. In 1992 he worked at the Human Rights Union in Istanbul where they formed a chapter for minority rights. "It was a very important experience and work for me. We would follow issues and problems affecting minorities," he said, adding that after leaving the union, his principle work in publishing developed in the field of minority rights.

Between 1994 and 2000, he served as editor-in-chief of a journal published by the Social and Economic Historical Institute of Turkey, which he is quick to add, was not a state institution. "This journal was one of the most serious and recognized journals in Turkey," he says.

Osman Köker was also involved in the creation in 1996 of the Turkish-Armenian daily Agos, which is published in Istanbul and Aras Publishing House, the only publishing house which publishes books in Armenian and books translated into Turkish from the Armenian. "I worked with Gevorg Pambukjian, a historian and helped put together a four volume collection of his essays and articles about the Istanbul-Armenian community and Armenians living in Turkey," he says.

Postcard discovery

"As I said earlier, for ten years, I had been involved in issues facing the Armenian minority [in Turkey], publishing books, conducting studies," Mr. Köker said. "In reality, I was initially working on a very simple book about how the Armenians used to live in Turkey 100 years ago; what role they played in the economy, education, culture, lifestyle, etc." He had spent almost five years working on that "simpler" version when he thought about utilizing some visual aids, like old photographs, that would create a greater impact.